1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image display system.
2. Related Art
There are previously known radiographic imaging devices (imaging devices) that perform radiographic imaging for the purpose of medical diagnostics. For such types of radiographic imaging device, there is, for example, a known technique for performing tomosynthesis imaging to image a breast of an investigation subject from plural angles, for purposes such as early diagnosis of breast cancer.
The slice images acquired of the breast by tomosynthesis imaging with images acquired from plural angles are particularly effective for highly dense (with many mammary glands) breasts (known as dense breasts). An example of the reason for this is that during imaging from one angle the transmission rate of mammary glands is low, and so although there is a risk of misdiagnosis if, for example, a tumor does not show up on an image due to the presence of mammary glands masking the tumor, the tumor becomes more readily picked up in the images by imaging from plural angles.
There are also known 3-dimensional viewing systems by which the breast can be viewed at a whole all at once.
However, the display of slice images only provides fragmentary data, and for a 3-dimensional image, consideration needs to be given to a combination made from the slice images, with the possibility of this leading to a tumor being overlooked. It is also necessary to check all of the plural slice images, with the possibility that this leads to the time for interpretation being longer than previously.
In a 3-dimensional system, there is an advantage as a tool by which the breast can be envisaged all at once, however, since the data amount for displaying the breast as a whole is based on data from two images taken from a limited angular field of view of about 4 to 10 degrees, the amount of data is not sufficient in comparison to the amount of data obtained from the great number of images acquired by tomosynthesis imaging, and in particular it is not sufficient to find tumors and the like in dense breasts.
Note that while there is a technique to detect regions of interest by computer aided detection (CAD) as a means to shorten the duration for interpreting slice images obtained by tomosynthesis imaging, in order to reach an opinion, a 3-dimensional image of the breast must be considered, and this takes time for interpretation. The regions of interest, for example, refer to regions of attention expressing loci of attention on the images. An example of a locus of attention is a calcified location.